Samsung unveils Galaxy Fold, but is it right for the masses?

Is Samsung‘s Galaxy Fold phone-tablet (remember the phablet?) going to turn into Google Glass? Remember Google’s big experiment where people jumped in to plunk down $1500 on something that’s long been forgotten.

Google’s failed Glass experiment that cost early buyers $1500.

Usually, I’m excited for the next iteration of Samsung smartphones, but I’m feeling some serious deja vu with this announcement. Remember those Android Wear smartwatches you just had to have but now sit next to that must-have tablet? How about when 3D cameras on phones first hit (HTC EVO 3D) or modular phones (Project Ara).

In today’s world where news comes at us fast and furious, it’s easy to forget being duped into jumping onboard quickly only to have the company discontinue the product line leaving you with a pretty but useless piece of tech gadgetry. Hype still works, and it feels like Samsung is starting this product a little too early. The company is relying on diehard Samsung fans and those that love to spend a ton of money on a tech gadget just for the status.

Are you willing to plunk down $2K to be a beta tester?

These people are going to become what Samsung needs in two words: beta testers. It saves the company money being paid by people to test the product rather than spending it on R&D.

Samsung is hailing the Galaxy Fold as the future of smartphones with this foldable one, but it appears this release is just a way to test and refine the model. You can’t claim to be releasing something that is the finest in its class but expect consumers to be your tester. Apple customers would have balked if the iMac Pro or those amazing 5K displays weren’t ready for prime time. Imagine if Microsoft had done this with those stellar Surface Studio PCs?

With a starting price of $1,980, Samsung knows the masses won’t be rushing out to purchase this. It will be the usual tech consumer aka early adopters to take the bait since they’re much more forgiving with problems than the average consumer.

My big concern that this wasn’t a product ready for market was during Samsung’s live presentation of the Galaxy Fold where the inner display doesn’t seem able to be perfectly flat when folded out. As you can see in the images above, light is reflecting off the surface exposing a small ridge in the middle. At this price point, consumers will expect a perfect fold and not ‘close to a perfect’ one.

While Galaxy is presenting the Fold as a consumer device which is troubling as this feels similar to the companies Galaxy Gear. Remember that? That’s what I’m warning you about. There’s a lot of promise and flash, but the substance leaves me feeling very wary on this product. It truly is buyer beware aka caveat emptor.

Samsung unveiled a highly anticipated smartphone with a foldable screen in an attempt to break the innovation funk that has beset the smartphone market.

But it’s far from clear
that consumers will embrace a device that retails for almost $2,000, or that it
will provide the creative catalyst the smartphone market needs.

The Galaxy Fold, announced
Wednesday in San Francisco, will sell for $1,980 when it is released April 26.

Consumers willing to pay
that hefty price will get a device that can unfold like a wallet. It can work
like a traditional smartphone with a 4.6 inch screen or morph into something
more like a mini-tablet with a 7.3 inch screen.

When fully unfolded, the
device will be able to simultaneously run three different apps on the screen.
The Galaxy Fold will also boast six cameras: three in the back, two on the
inside and one on the front.

After spending nearly five
years developing the technology underlying its foldable-screen phone, Samsung
is clearly hoping for a big payoff.

“Get ready for the dawn of
a new era,” declared DJ Koh, who oversees Samsung’s smartphone division. The
new phone, he said, “answers skeptics who said everything has already been
done.”

Oh, the color choices you’ll have.

If Samsung is right, the
Galaxy Fold will spur more people to upgrade their phones. Overall smartphones
sales peaked in 2017; Samsung saw its smartphone sales fall 8 percent last year, based on
estimates from the research firm International Data Corp. Worldwide, smartphone
sales dropped 4 percent in 2018, according to IDC.

But most analysts see a
limited market for foldable-screen phones, at least in the early going. Phones
like the Galaxy Fold “are likely to sell to a very limited market of technology
aficionados who like big screens and have big wallets,” said IDC analyst Ramon
Llamas.

Although he also believes
the Galaxy Fold is more a “status symbol” than mainstream product, Moor
Insights & Strategy analyst Patrick Moorhead said the device is
symbolically important for Samsung, the top seller of smartphones in the world.
“The Fold was icing on the cake showing that Samsung is the company driving new
innovations and excitement to the market,” Moorhead said.

There’s no doubt that the
Galaxy Fold is “luxury technology,” conceded Justin Denison, a Samsung senior
vice president during an interview. But he also predicted that the advent of
foldable screens will unleash new uses for mobile devices. “It’s a
technological marvel,” Denison said. “The first time you see a flexible screen,
it sort of bends your mind.”

Samsung also released new
Galaxy S10 phones that echo the features in other recent models. Each device in
the S10 lineup boast fancy cameras, sleek screens covering the entire front of
the devices and at least 128 gigabytes of storage — important features to consumers
shopping for phones.

The new phones are able
take wider-angle shots than previous models and can charge other devices,
including wireless headphones and smartwatches. A fourth S10 model, due out
this spring, will have faster wireless speeds through the emerging 5G cellular
network.

But those improvements
aren’t a big leap from the smartphones released during the past few years by
Samsung, Apple and other top manufacturers.

“These phones are all
variations on a theme we have already seen,” Llamas said. “It’s the same song
with a slightly different verse.”

With the pace of
smartphone innovation seemingly locked in baby steps, consumers
are holding on to their existing devices for longer periods than they have in the past.
Compounding that reluctance to upgrade is smartphone sticker shock, which the
Galaxy Fold seems unlikely to alleviate. Prices for some existing phones models
have soared above $1,000.

Samsung is offering a
slightly smaller S10 model for $750 in an attempt to make smartphones more
affordable, but the higher-end models sell for $900 and $1,000. It’s the second
time in the past five months that a leading smartphone maker has positioned a
$750 phone as a frugal option. Apple also priced its cheapest new phone, the iPhone XR, released last fall at $750. Other smartphone makers gaining market
share, including China’s Huawei and Xiaomi, make smartphones that sell for $500
or less, as well as high-end models.

Two of Samsung’s new
models, the S10 and the S10 Plus, are largely incremental upgrades of last
year’s S9 and S9 Plus, although they are designed differently. They are about
the same size as last year’s models, but will have more display space, as
Samsung found additional ways to eliminate waste around the edges. As a
byproduct, the top right of the display has a circle or oval cut out for the
front-facing cameras.

The lowest-priced
“essentials” model, the S10e, has most of the same features, but is 5 percent
smaller than the S10 in volume. The S10e also lacks curved edges, a signature
feature for many Samsung phones.

All three S10 models will
come out March 8, with pre-orders starting Thursday.

Samsung trumpeted its 10th
anniversary lineup ahead of a major mobile device conference in Barcelona next
week. Huawei, which is threatening to overtake Apple as the world’s second
biggest seller of smartphones, has promised to use the Spain showcase to
preview its own device with a foldable screen and the ability to connect to 5G
networks as they become operational during the next few years.

Jeffrey Lang has joined Movie TV Tech Geeks for 2015 and will be providing his opinion on technology from across the pond in London. Along with having many opinions on tech, gadgets, games, etc., he enjoys watching the Thames from our satellite office there.